


Be Alright

by newfoundreddie (lcvejccn)



Series: Be Alright [1]
Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Eddie Kaspbrak has a daughter, Eddie Kaspbrak is Dead, Edith Kaspbrak is sad, M/M, Not a Fix-It (yet), Other, Rated T for language, Richie Tozier Loves Eddie Kaspbrak, Richie Tozier is a Mess, Richie Tozier is a good parent, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-20
Updated: 2020-01-20
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:35:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22338622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lcvejccn/pseuds/newfoundreddie
Summary: After the funeral ends, Richie stays behind to sit with Eddie’s grave. He glares at the stone that readsEdward Kaspbrak, husband and friend. He was more than that, wasn’t he? His Eds, the short man with the most loud annoying personality that held a hell of a lot of love? That couldn’t be put on a stone, he supposes, but hell anything would be better than husband and friend. Not to mention that Eddie would’ve-“Fucking hated to be buried, don’t you think?”
Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak & Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Series: Be Alright [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1608010
Comments: 9
Kudos: 89





	Be Alright

Ten years ago, if you told Richie Tozier he was in love with his best friend, he would’ve laughed in your face, because he _doesn’t have a best friend, thank you very much. Just your mom_. He would’ve moved on from that topic so fucking quick, because then he didn’t remember ever having a best friend. He didn’t remember being in love. He didn’t remember _him_.

Now, if you told Richie Tozier he was in love with his best friend, he would give a melancholic smile and say, _shit I still am, how fucked up is that?_ And somehow try to make a joke about it, because he’s Richie, and he can’t cope with his feelings for shit. After 27 years of bullshit, he finally understands that he does have a best friend. 6, actually. 

Of course the shitty thing is that 2 of them are dead, but what can you do? And yeah, maybe the best friend he is in love with is one of the dead guys, but he’ll take what he can get. He finally has people who know him, he finally has people who love him, and he finally knows who he is. But Richie is hurting. And he doesn’t want anyone to know, but the losers do. They always know. 

Eddie’s (yes, the dead best friend he’s in love with) funeral takes place in New York. It’s on a rainy day in late summer and it’s dull as all hell. Seriously. 

The crowd at this funeral consists of Eddie’s wife Myra, the Losers, and a shit ton of his coworkers and colleagues who didn’t have much to say about him. That raises questions in Richie’s head, but he chooses not to say anything to anyone.

After the funeral ends, Richie stays behind to sit with Eddie’s grave. He glares at the stone that reads _Edward Kaspbrak, husband and friend_. He was more than that, wasn’t he? His Eds, the short man with the most loud annoying personality that held a hell of a lot of love? That couldn’t be put on a stone, he supposes, but hell anything would be better than _husband and friend_. Not to mention that Eddie would’ve-

“Fucking hated to be buried, don’t you think?” 

That voice.

Richie has never heard it before but it seems so familiar. It’s almost painful, how fast the person talks. Like their brain goes faster than their mouth and they’re trying to catch up with it. Richie turns around and meets brown eyes. They belong to a young woman, shorter and sort of lanky. Her hair is cropped above her shoulders, a bit below her chin. She has frown lines despite her young appearance and there are dark circles beneath her brown orbs. Below the circles, freckles dust against her cheeks, and damn it all.

She looks like Eddie. 

“Sorry,” She says, after she realizes Richie isn’t going to say anything. “I’m Edith.” She smiles, and it’s small but it’s there. Her hands tremble. “Do you mind if I sit next to you?”

“Uh, no.” Richie sighs out. “Please, feel free.” 

Edith places her jacket on the ground before sitting on top of it and Richie’s chest aches. It feels like someone is reaching inside of it, trying to pull something out. “I’m Richie.”

“I know.” Edith gives that small smile again. It doesn’t reach her eyes. It didn’t before, either. “Eddie’s friend. The last man who saw him alive. I know who you are.”

For some reason, the wording she uses makes something in Richie’s chest coil and he snaps. “You’re a little late to the ceremony. You a reporter or something? Trying to get the scoop on where Richie Tozier has been?” 

Edith scowls. “Chill, asshole. I didn’t even know who you were until just days ago.” She takes a breath. 

“I’m his kid.” 

And Richie can’t breathe. She talks as fast as him, and she’s not afraid to give Richie shit (who is, really). She notes his silence and apparent surprise and raises a brow. “Did he not tell you about me?”

To be completely fair, Eddie only told Richie he got married. He never said anything about having a daughter. They both kept things from each other, then. That hurts Richie a bit more than he’d like to admit. He looks back at Eddie’s gravestone and he swears he didn’t see it before, but it also says father.

“No, he didn’t,” He says. And he watches the teenager before him visibly deflate at that. “I didn’t think he would ever have a kid.”

“Well, he fucking did,” Edith snaps. She closes her eyes and clenches her jaw. “Sorry.”

“For what?”

“Snapping at you. I’m trying to get better about it.” She chuckles dryly. “I should probably go into anger management classes or something.”

“Eddie said the same thing about himself when we were kids.” Richie says before he can stop himself. He didn’t expect Edith to smile, showing teeth this time. 

“Really?”

“Oh yeah,” He smiles. “He was this ball of anger sometimes. I had no idea someone could fit so much anger in such a tiny little body.”

“You say tiny, but you’re like a fucking tree. How accurate is your description of tiny?”

“Damn,” Richie chuckles. “Just as much fire as him when it comes to being short.” He ignores the girl’s scowl. “But no, he was actually pretty small. He was the shortest one of the losers until Bill stopped growing all of a sudden.”

“He didn’t really have that fire anymore. He was so passive.” She sighs. “It’s like he was two different people to us.” 

“Maybe he didn’t really know who he was.” Richie says, and he’s serious. Did Eddie actually know who he was, or was he just going along with what life threw at him? Did he have any desire to be who he wanted to be? Did he know what he wanted?

“I’d like to think the man he was with you is who he really was.” Edith smiles, and it’s like the first: small and sad. Her eyes well up with tears, and Richie can’t help it when his do the same. “I wish I could’ve known that guy.” 

“I wish I had more time with him.” He admits. “This is so shitty.” Edith chuckles at that and looks at the gravestone. She shrugs. 

“Maybe everything happens for a reason.” She says and it’s not empty. She has a purpose to her words, and it makes Richie’s hands shake. His chest feels that weight again. She looks at him for a moment without saying anything. It’s like she’s studying him. “What do you think?”

“I don’t know,” Richie says without thinking about it. “I don’t know what to think anymore.”

“I get it.” Edith replies. She looks out towards the gate of the cemetery. “I don’t want to go back.”

“Back?”

“Home,” She says. This time, tears fall. “She’s so unbearable.” 

Richie’s face pales, because what if Edith’s in the same situation Eddie was when he was a kid? Myra couldn’t be that bad, right? “How so? If you don’t mind me asking.”

Edith pales as well and she looks at Richie cautiously. “She doesn’t hit me or anything. She’s just really protective. More so now than ever because she now only has one person to dote on.” 

“You’re not in any immediate danger or anything?” He wants to make sure. Richie feels like he has some sort of responsibility over this kid. She is his best friend’s, after all. 

“If you call an emergency room visit over me sneezing after dusting immediate danger.” Edith says. “And it’s not even that. She’s been just putting his stuff away. It’s like she’s trying to erase his presence from us completely.” 

“That’s fucked.”

“Yeah. It’s unhealthy.” She agrees, and she stops, like she doesn’t know what else to say. 

“Look,” The older man starts, slightly hesitant. “If you need me to do anything, get you anything, then I can do that, alright?” 

Edith looks at Richie with wide eyes, and they fill with tears again. “You mean that?” 

And Richie smiles at this kid. He puts an arm around her shoulders and pulls her in. “Of course. Any kid of Eddie’s is a kid of mine!” 

“I don’t think that’s how it works, Richie.” She giggles, and some tears slip. She looks up at him and with an eerily familiar smile, and says thank you. 

“No need to thank me, squirt.”

“Squirt? I’m 17, asshat!” 

The pair sit for a while before going to a coffee shop nearby, both drinking cappuccinos with way too much sugar and way too much creamer. They sit and exchange stories and jokes, and for a bit, Edith just sits smiling while Richie tells her all about his and Eddie’s childhood together. She asks questions sometimes about the other losers, but she mostly asks about her father. What he was like, what he liked to do for fun, things like that. Richie is eager to answer all of her questions, and she seems grateful. 

They leave the coffee shop after about two hours and it’s getting dark, around dinner time. Edith pulls her phone out of her jacket pocket and curses. “Shit.” 

“What?”

“I was supposed to be home to help make dinner a half hour ago.” She replies. She shakes her head at herself and looks at Richie. “You mind walking me?” 

“Not at all.” Edith leads him in the direction of her home. 

While they walk, Richie looks over at the teenager. Her cropped hair is slightly messed up from neglect and her frown lines look deeper in the evening. Someone brushes by them, bumping into her slightly and she scowls. In that moment, Richie just sees Eddie. 

The comedian shakes his head, trying to clear the image from his mind. He can’t do that to Edith. He can’t just erase her identity in favor of her father’s. While eerily similar, Edith is her own person. And maybe Myra doesn’t see it. Maybe that’s why she’s so overbearing. Like she’s trying to replace Eddie’s presence with that of her daughter’s. 

They stay in silence during their walk, and when they reach the front door of Eddie’s old apartment, Richie holds his breath. The door is brown and plain, but without a scratch. Edith scratches the back of her neck. “I’d invite you in, but she would probably freak out.” 

“I get it, Mrs. K is a little scary. Both of them.” Richie jokes and Edith smiles. It fades, and a sad look is back in her eyes. “Kid,” She looks up at him. “You’re gonna be alright.” 

“I hope so.” She says, voice wavering. “I’ve only got a year left here, and then I’m out.” 

“That you are,” The older man agrees. “Then you can do whatever the hell you want. Go wherever the hell you want.”

“Yeah,” She smiles. “Thanks, Richie.” 

“Anytime kid. You got my number. Don’t be afraid to shoot me a text.” He says, and then smirks. “But if I get weird texts and calls in the next few months I’ll know it’s you who leaked my number, so watch it.”

“Aye aye, cap.” She says. “Safe travels back to LA.” 

With that, the girl opens the door with a shaky hand and goes inside. Richie listens for a moment, expecting to hear yelling like he always would with Eddie when he was a kid, but he hears nothing. He shoves his hands in his pockets and makes his way out toward the street, calling a cab to his hotel room. 

The next evening, just before Richie boards his flight back to LA, his phone beeps.

_UCLA looks like a good school. Definitely applying when the time comes._

Richie knows him and Edith are good, and he knows they’ll be alright. Especially when they’ve got each other. 

And somewhere over 400 miles away, the underground rumbles.

**Author's Note:**

> Uh, hello! If you're reading this, thanks for making it to the end. This is my first IT fanfic, so I apologize if Richie seems a little OOC. I don't really have any references as to how he'd be with a kid, but I tried my best. If you have any constructive criticism please feel free to leave it. This is most likely going to be a series (kudos to you if you've seen some of the hints I've left in the tags and the story). But uhhh yeah, I hope you enjoyed and will stick around for the next part! :)
> 
> Also follow my twitter for writing progress updates @newfoundreddie !!


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